Gulfsurfer101's fantastic finnex 30g M-tank

gulfsurfer101

Posted 15 August 2010 - 08:54 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Corpus Crusty, TX

So I started this tank after I decided to tear down a much hated 40br. Here are some of the latest pics I took of this tank 2 months after start up. I don't have no pics of the tank when I picked it up but it had dead coraline just about everywhere, dead tube worms in the rear section and just looked beyond screwed. I scraped all that off with a new paint scraper and some vinegar. It looked almost brand new that day. Here are the first and latest pics.Edit: I swapped my MH/T5 combo lighting in for a boost mu series and have not looked back. I got pics and vids on pg 7 or 8 with my new lighting.My 25 dollar scoly I brought from the brink of death from a mom and pop shop around the corner, a good buy I thinkAnd my favorite steal, my 35 dollar tyree undata.

Most of my coral has come from gulf coast reef and aquaculture. I must say that their prices are really fair and their peices are top quality and very well kept. I really love the way they do buisness and will not sell you diseased or pest infected coral. I will post a link to pass on the good deals to fellow reefers that love to buy nice coral at nice prices.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 16 August 2010 - 02:29 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Corpus Crusty, TX

The finnex is the best aoi I've kept. I've had the AP and the NC but they do not come close to the finnex. It has a large overflow section that originally comes with a wet/dry media rack that spills over to the return section that T's off into a nice size refugium that's perfect for macro. It's even fail safe so if it runs low and cannot overflow due to heavy evaporation it has a few tiny holes in the pump return section to keep the pump from running dry. This was easily fixxed with placing a float switch topoff to the middle section of the rear chambers. It's a diy ato that's accurate within 5ml's. I pull water out with a feeding baster to defrost mysis and it will kick it on. The MH/T5ho lighting is a big plus over this tank. The combination puts it at 6.6w per gallon and that's the perfect amount for growing sps. Truthfully, I wish I knew about this tank when I was looking to upgrade from my AP24 and bought my 40br. I would have just skipt that whole deal and went with the finnex. I would recomend this tank to any one looking for an aio tank.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 16 August 2010 - 05:47 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Corpus Crusty, TX

Here's morePrevious pic of a browned out acro before the pheonix 14kHere's the previous scape, nice but to unstable. I might drill and glue to resemble the look this weekend if I get time. I was just fooling around and running tests'

gulfsurfer101

Posted 17 August 2010 - 07:39 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Loving this tank three months in. I got the new tank syndrome for a while and started up one for my kids with the leftover stuff from my 40br. It was good to feel that after feeling like it had become work to maintain a 40br and trouble shooting problems that just aren't present in this tank. I can pretty much say this tank is self automated with the exception of a midweek dosing and weekly detrius syphon wc's. Getting a few coraline splotches here and there on the bottom, things are looking good. I want to find some interesting lps peices to fill out the bb a little more.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 21 August 2010 - 05:48 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Corpus Crusty, TX

Didn't get to mess with the scape at all but maybe with tommorrow water change I'll have time to do what I'd like and drill some holes and set some acrylic rods to hold the rock like I want. I was bored and decided to try and work my camera skills out once again. I need all the practice I can get.

My finnex MH/t5 combo light, I love this thing!RandomsMy 25 dollar scoly,woop!MY red hornets, Hope nobody seeing this paid 200 a polyp for these cause I would have sold you one for ten bucks. I got to make a profit somehow right.These are the kind of ten dollar sps coral frag I get or 10 bucks at GCR&A, poor mans reef fix, I love it.And a deepwater acro that I can't seem to photo at all for 20 bucks, wow! I wish I get the blue and green this thing has but I need to dial in my camera and I just don't have dem skills atm.My shrooms get blasted by my vortec which helps them split and fly off to different rocks and seed this new tank everywhere. I started with like six shrooms on that rock now they are popping out everywhere.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 22 August 2010 - 06:05 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Got some new buds from glennr1978 today. Some sweet looking birdsnet frags, monti's and and PD's. I'm getting some pics up now. I think they are awsome, thanks man you always hook me up with some killer stuff. Thanks for pimping out my tank.

Posted 24 August 2010 - 10:15 PM

gulfsurfer101

Posted 27 August 2010 - 05:09 PM

gulfsurfer101

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I was so dissapointed to find my favorite fish, the sargassum angler I caught locally stuck to my vortec mp20 impeller today after I got home from work. He was the last one I kept and I have not been able to find more lately. I removed him from the impeller after god know how long and he just swam kind of funky then he swam to the big tank in the sky. Today marks the loss of a freind. All my other fish I had I have put in my daughters tank and have only kept a single ora misbarred clown. This tank may need a blue hippo tang to go with nemo. JK,JK, but I would like to get rid of that cown and start a whole new stock list or just might do away with fish and just have a lame old coral growout tank. Any suggestions are welcome.

RIP fingersMy daughter named him after watching him crawl around the rockwork.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 28 August 2010 - 05:05 PM

gulfsurfer101

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An angler has seem to have retaken my tank today. We'll wait it out and see how it goes. If the clown is alive at the end of the week I will move him to the other tank and see from there! This is the only plan I could come up with.

Here chillin in the tank!Loving the color contrast he adds to the tank.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 29 August 2010 - 07:32 AM

Thanks, didn't see you sneek a post till I was scrolling through here. Your kind words are apreciated.

what kind of skimmer is that?

I am running and eshoppes psk 75 hang on back. They pump went out on me but was replaced at total cost of 25bucks shipped. It is a powerful little skimmer for this size tank and is rated up to 75g. I think the 30-40g is more ideal for keeping sps with this skimmer, for larger tanks I would go with the psk 100.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 29 August 2010 - 08:03 AM

gulfsurfer101

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I think they are out of season since the temps here are getting into the 100*'s the only thing I'm seeing in the waters here are gafftops(hard head catfish) and baitfish. Hopefully when the temps come down I'll be able to find a few more and get one shipped to you. I'm telling you that place is awsome and the pricing nice. They need to update their website since they got lots of stuff in.

bird

Posted 29 August 2010 - 08:06 AM

bird

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cool fish. It will eventually eat the clown if it can catch it though right? What do you feed it? Cheap damsels? Guess freshwater fish/shrimp would eventually do it in but would feed it for a time. Bet it can get expensive to feed it the right way with saltwater fish, unless you can catch your own or can get hooked up with cheap damsels.
Nice setup BTW.
How large will the angler get?

gulfsurfer101

Posted 29 August 2010 - 08:16 AM

gulfsurfer101

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cool fish. It will eventually eat the clown if it can catch it though right? What do you feed it? Cheap damsels? Guess freshwater fish/shrimp would eventually do it in but would feed it for a time. Bet it can get expensive to feed it the right way with saltwater fish, unless you can catch your own or can get hooked up with cheap damsels.Nice setup BTW.How large will the angler get?

If I wasn't so close to the beach I can see it getting pricey. He feed's on small chopped silversides and chopped shrimp but to get that live feeding fix they desire I just cruz to the beach net up a bunch of sargassum seaweed and shake it out into a 5g bucket with about 6" of sw in it. I get tons of tiny shrimp, small seargent majors pipefish and tiny crabs that make good live meals that these fish naturally prey on. The rear macro chamber of my tank lets me keep what I want alive and feed throught the week as needed. He will eventually eat the clown or anything that basically fits in his mouth. I'm waiting for a skimmer to arrive this week before I move my clown over to my daughters tank. I believe they get up to 6" though, by that time I plan on having a very large tank set up.

bird

Posted 29 August 2010 - 08:21 AM

bird

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If I wasn't so close to the beach I can see it getting pricey. He feed's on small chopped silversides and chopped shrimp but to get that live feeding fix they desire I just cruz to the beach net up a bunch of sargassum seaweed and shake it out into a 5g bucket with about 6" of sw in it. I get tons of tiny shrimp, small seargent majors pipefish and tiny crabs that make good live meals that these fish naturally prey on. The rear macro chamber of my tank lets me keep what I want alive and feed throught the week as needed. He will eventually eat the clown or anything that basically fits in his mouth. I'm waiting for a skimmer to arrive this week before I move my clown over to my daughters tank.

Sweet. Bet that live food puts it in heaven come feeding time.How often do you feed it? Couple times a week?I saw a dull one in a shop last week, maybe the week before. Lucky on that price and color you got.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 29 August 2010 - 08:47 AM

gulfsurfer101

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I haven't been able to feed him live foods yet. I plan on heading to the beach later on today and get some shrimps. I just introduced him to my tank yesterday and have not yet fed him since I had the lfs girl feed him to show mw how he accepts his meals. You basically just cut the head off a silverside place it on a skewer and taunt him with it till he goes for it. Tonight he should dine on live shrimp and possibly a fish or two. Sunday is my beach day.

moto826

Posted 29 August 2010 - 09:04 AM

gulfsurfer101

Posted 29 August 2010 - 09:12 AM

gulfsurfer101

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Thanks man, I'm looking foward to the frags from you and I'll update after that. I would not have been able to stock so quickly if it weren't for the local aquaculture facility here. The mom and pop shops here charge outrages prices for lame coral. Hope that small colony frag I sent you starts to open up for you. I'm done shipping with usps since they always seem to mess up one way or another.

gulfsurfer101

Posted 29 August 2010 - 07:05 PM

gulfsurfer101

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Still haven't got a name for him. Usually my oldest daughter will name my fish. I am waiting for her to notice him and ask what his name is. I will tell her IDK and she will say let's name him.... after being even more stoked than I am of course of the new guy. That's some of my favorite stuff right there.

bird

Posted 29 August 2010 - 08:55 PM

bird

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I was so dissapointed to find my favorite fish, the sargassum angler I caught locally stuck to my vortec mp20 impeller today after I got home from work. He was the last one I kept and I have not been able to find more lately. I removed him from the impeller after god know how long and he just swam kind of funky then he swam to the big tank in the sky. Today marks the loss of a freind. All my other fish I had I have put in my daughters tank and have only kept a single ora misbarred clown. This tank may need a blue hippo tang to go with nemo. JK,JK, but I would like to get rid of that cown and start a whole new stock list or just might do away with fish and just have a lame old coral growout tank. Any suggestions are welcome.

RIP fingersMy daughter named him after watching him crawl around the rockwork.

With the angler it is pretty easy to select what fish. Any fish that you don't mind being eaten. You will be surprised how fast the angler is going to grow and especially what size fish it can get into its mouth and expandable stomach. It can easily eat and digest a fish its size and with stealth and nothing to interrupt it take a fish larger than itself.